The shock £1.5M proof of Clement’s Rangers fail is Aberdeen | OneFootball

The one absolute definitive proof of how bad Rangers are this season is summed up in one word:

Aberdeen.

Yes, Jimmy Thelin, who only signed up at Pittodrie in early June and spent a grand total this summer of £1.5M on 6 players, losing 13, including Connor Barron and £7M man Bojan Miovski, strolls way ahead of Rangers in the league by 6 points, joint with Celtic.

Indeed, Rangers fans firmly expecting the Dons to fold at Parkhead last weekend ‘because they always lie down don’t they’ were almost angered that Thelin’s men not only held their own but could have won, and were unfortunate to only take a single point in the east end of Glasgow.

Which is more than Philippe Clement’s Rangers have done in any attempt he’s made over there.

See, it’s one thing for a Rangers team to be a bit off Celtic, it does happen – and a manager’s budget can be used as a reason. But when they are behind anyone else in this two horse league makes a big difference and no longer does the comparison to Celtic hold the same water.

All the fan excuses of earlier this year, such as ‘give him time ffs’, and ‘judge him on his own team ffs’ have begun melting away when Jimmy Thelin hasn’t ‘needed time’, and that he’s built the right squad with a fraction of Clement’s money and streaks ahead of Clement in the league.

It is true that a league campaign is played over a season and we’re only 8 games into this one, but the signs are not good for Philippe Clement – Thelin not only is 6 points head of the Belgian, but lowly Dundee United are only one point behind Rangers and currently Rangers are actually fighting to hold onto that third spot.

The Swede was clearly a very shrewd signing by Aberdeen, evidently replacing a slew of abysmally-inappropriate coaches with one who really does know what he’s doing.

We all thought the same about Clement of course, but the way he’s gone about his ‘rebuild’ has turned many fans off him entirely.

He was given the slack of ‘give him time’ and ‘judge him by his players’ but clearly he’s utterly blown that goodwill by making matters worse with a pretty poor transfer window which has left an already weak Rangers even worse.

And that’s on him. He might not have physically signed these players, that rests on Director of Football Recruitment Nils Koppen, but the two of them 100% liaise on the players found and Clement actively takes part in the picking and choosing process.

So it’s very much his team, his image.

And unlike Thelin and Aberdeen, unfortunately it isn’t very good.